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Just before 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, North Carolina authorities sent out an email saying Abigale Lefevers had been located in Florida.

According to WITN, the NBC affiliate in Greenville, N.C., Carteret County detectives received confirmation from police in Hallandale Beach, Fla., that Abigale was safe with police and Timothy Newman, her suspected abductor, was in custody.

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Authorities said the two were found in the parking lot near a Wendy's on Hallandale Beach Boulevard about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Police said Newman's vehicle was spotted by officers who stopped the car near a Denny's Restaurant near Interstate 95, according to WITN. Newman, a convicted sex offender, was taken into custody without incident.

Carteret County Sheriff's Office officials said Tuesday there was reason to believe Newman and the girl may be in the Myrtle Beach area.

Authorities then tracked the two to Florida.

The girl was reported missing Monday morning.

On Tuesday, Newman's roommate told a TV reporter the girl may have gone with Newman willingly. "From what I witnessed it seemed like they were in love," said Van Jarman. "I mean I hate to say that because that's a big word," Jarman said.

The girl's father, Robert Lefevers, spoke to reporters on Monday.

He had this message for his daughter: "Abigale if you're out there watching me right now baby, please just come home. Daddy's not mad, we can work through anything that this is, just please come home. Please come home baby."

WITN reported that the father knew Newman. "I did know him," Lefevers said. "I didn't know that he was capable of taking my daughter and running off with her," he told a WITN reporter.

Newman served more than six years in prison for three counts of sex offenses, before he was released last year, authorities confirmed.